Shocking: The notorious crimes that rocked Melbourne shopping centres

Armed robbers in a shootout, a samurai sword slaying, a horrific axe attack and gang violence are all among the worst crimes to go down at Melbourne shopping centres.

Detectives inspect Australia’s most wanted man Russell ‘Mad Dog’ Cox’s car after he was caught at Doncaster Shoppingtown in 1988.

We expect shopping centres to be chaotic, with customers flocking to get the best deal and people congregating at popular food outlets — but not this kind.
These shoppers got much more than they bargained for when they went shopping and became witnesses and victims to some of the most chilling crimes in Melbourne.

Here are the crimes that rocked our shopping centres.

RUSSELL ‘MAD DOG’ COX CAUGHT AT SHOPPO AFTER SHOOTOUT

Australia’s most wanted man in July 1988 was armed-robber and prison escapee Russell ‘Mad Dog’ Cox.

Mad Dog had been on the run for 11 years when Victoria Police armed robbery detectives cornered the wanted man with a hail of bullets just near the old library site at Doncaster Shoppingtown.

Detectives nabbed Cox after getting a lead on another fugitive Raymond Denning.

Police believe the armed pair were at Shoppo to do over an armoured van.

Cox was arrested after a gunfight but not before students at nearby Doncaster Primary school were told to hide under tables in their classrooms.

Russell ‘Mad Dog’ Cox following his capture with fellow escapee Ray Denning at Melbourne's Doncaster Shopping Centre in 1988.

BLACKBURN NORTH COLD BLOODED KILLING

Security guard Erwin Kastenberger was shot dead during an armed robbery at Blackburn North shopping centre — despite his efforts to comply with the killer’s demands.

Hugo Rich shot the Armaguard employee as he delivered cash to a bank in the shopping centre on March 8, 2005.

The guard threw down a bag containing $162,000 as soon as he was challenged by Rich and his co-offender Leonard Ryan.

But as Ryan picked up the bag, career-criminal Rich hit the guard over the head with a pistol and shot him.

When Rich was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years’ jail in November 2009, the Supreme Court heard the shooting was unprovoked and Rich was unrepentant for the crime.

The scene of a brutal axe attack at Fountain Gate. Picture: Nine News

FOUNTAIN GATE AXE ATTACK

A mum was working at a Fountain Gate Shopping Centre beauty parlour when her estranged husband set upon her with an axe, striking her more than 20 times.

The man, who can’t be named for legal reasons, bought a 39cm hatchet before the attack, which he used in the frenzied attack on the mother of his two children in March 2017.

The axe became stuck in the woman’s skol at one point, requiring the man to wrench it out.

She was left with permanent scarring, including large scars on her face.

The man claimed his actions were spurred by the couple’s separation and his wife’s relationship with another man.

He was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years’ and 10 months’ jail and a maximum of 14 years’ before the County Court in September 2018.

Jonathan Dick killed his brother at Shoppingtown in 2017.

SHOPPINGTOWN SAMURAI SWORD SLAYING

Jonathan Dick became one of the country’s most wanted fugitives after he attacked his younger brother with a Samurai sword as he stepped out of a lift at Shoppingtown shortly after 6am on February 3 2017.

Dick stabbed David, 36, at least 20 times in the neck and head as his sibling lay on the ground fighting for his life.

Dick was last September found not guilty of murder by reason of mental impairment.

Dick managed to evade capture until 2019 when he was dramatically arrested in the city while in possession of a knife, gloves and a hammer.

Dick remains under court ordered supervision in a secure mental health facility until a later date.

EASTERN SUBURBS PORN PLANTER

A Mitcham man hid 450 child pornography pictures among Christmas gifts at Forest Hill Chase, Doncaster, Eastland and Knox shopping centres in 2006.

Kenneth Palliser planted pictures of naked boys and girls in soft toys, clothing, cards and gift boxes, which were found by staff and customers — some as young as 10 — at stores including Myer, K mart, Big W, Payless Shoes and Dymocks Books.

Palliser downloaded the pictures from the internet and added the words, “Merry Christmas” and later told police he intended the pictures to be found by adult men.

He was sentenced to one year imprisonment wholly suspended for two years before a magistrates court.

Nur Islam started a fire inside the Commonwealth Bank in Springvale.

SPRINGVALE SHOPPING DISTRICT BANK ARSON

A man created a fireball inside Springvale’s Commonwealth bank, burning himself, customers, staff and destroying the branch, after he had trouble taking money out of his account.

Nur Islam poured petrol around the bank’s entrance after 11am on November 18, 2016 then lit a cigarette lighter.

The blaze burnt dozens of the 39 people inside the bank, with four, including Islam, suffering serious injuries.

The building was left with about two and a half-million dollars worth of damage.

Islam was sentenced to a minimum of seven years’ jail and a maximum of 11 in March 2019.

Dozens were injured after a man set himself on fire at a Commonwealth Bank in Springvale.

BOX HILL CENTRAL AND THE POSTCARD BANDIT

A massive Australia-wide manhunt was underway for the infamous Postcard Bandit when in April 1998 two police officers were shot at a Box Hill Central carpark.

Brenden Abbott and his crony Brendan Berichon were making headlines the same time the officers were shot but only later was it revealed Berichon was the shooter.

Berichon was arrested not long after the shooting and Abbotts days on the run were numbered when he was caught in Western Australia later that year.

The pair had been keeping a low profile in Carlton prior to the shooting.

Berichon served nine years for the attempted murder of the two police officers and Abbott remains behind bars.

Brenden James Abbott aka the ‘Postcard Bandit’.

Brendan Berichon.

FOUNTAIN GATE THE GANG RIDDLED CENTRE

In 2019, Westfield Fountain Gate traders told Leader they were too terrified to try and stop gangs of teens raiding their shops and wreaking havoc through the centre.

Since then, the centre has been the scene of several violent teen gang attacks.

Business owners felt helpless to respond when groups of 6-12 teens storm their stores, steal goods, run amok and thrown things around.

Victims said the Narre Warren shopping precinct is the most unsafe in Melbourne after a spate of crimes including violent attacks and a series of brazen thefts by teenagers.

And more than 3000 people have so far voted in a Leader poll, with 74 per cent saying the violence kept them from shopping at the centre.

In a response to the ongoing violence, police deployed the mounted branch to patrol the centre, while the centre increased security patrols.

An artist’s impression of Brimbank Central kidnappers Mark and Cheryl McEachran.

BRIMBANK CENTRAL SHOPPING CENTRE BABY ABDUCTION

It was every mum’s worst nightmare.

Anita Ciancio’s daughter Montana Barbaro was kidnapped during a brazen attack at Brimbank Central Shopping Centre.

Montana was only a three-week-old baby when she was abducted in the car park in August 2005.

A desperate couple assaulted Anita then snatched Montana.

The kidnappers Mark and Cheryl McEachran held baby Montana for two days, cutting her hair and claiming her as their own.

Then they dumped the helpless infant in a derelict house in North Melbourne following a statewide manhunt.

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